Projects
Honeybee probiotic combating glyphosate exposure
Honeybees may be exposed to glyphosate, a commonly applied herbicide, during crop pollination. Although glyphosate was previously considered safe for honeybees, it can negatively affect honeybee abilities including their learning, memory, and navigation which are important for colony wellbeing and pollination efficiency. While it is known that glyphosate has these negative effects, it is still unknown how glyphosate causes them. Recently, glyphosate has been shown to disturb the honeybee gut microbiome, an important community of microorganisms, including bacteria, living inside the digestive track. The gut microbiome is directly linked to honeybee health, cognition, and behaviours. Glyphosate may therefore affect honeybee abilities indirectly by altering their gut microbiome. Therfore counteracting the effects of glyphosate on the gut microbiome may relieve the effects glyphosate has on honeybee abilities. This may be achieved by providing honeybees supplementary feeding enriched with probiotics containing the gut bacteria most effected by glyphosate. To test this, honeybees will first be exposed to glyphosate, then provided the probiotic, then have their will learning abilities assessed. This project will help advance the understand of the effects of glyphosate and potentially develop ways to combat agrochemical effects. This could help improve colony wellbeing, performance, and related agricultural practices.
